The Return of Avery Cates

THE DIGITAL PLAGUE by Jeff Somers (2008 Orbit / 358 pp. / hc)

After destroying THE ELECTRIC CHURCH in his first adventure, anti-hero Avery Cates returns in Somers' second installment of this dark, gritty scifi series.

Someone injects Cates with a mysterious substance--the same substance that has begun to kill off others like a mix of cancer and ebola. With the help of some new "System Pigs" (a.k.a. the police) and a super-nerdy "techie," Cates learns he has been selected as the host to a DIGITAL PLAGUE, i.e. cell-sized nanobots who self-replicate until their victims die a most horrendous death. Those who come within eight (or so) feet of Cates instantly catch the plague, but those who STAY with him remain okay until they leave his presence (hence why our small crew stays close together throughout the novel).

From brutal fights and shoot-outs in the streets of New York (this series has the feel of a more hardcore BLADERUNNER), Cates and the cops (all who'd like to kill him, by the way) grab a hover craft to Paris, France, where the secret to who injected him (and began this plague) may be found. Along the way there's run-ins with various freaks, geeks, and even some Monks who survived the Electric Church's downfall.

THE DIGITAL PLAGUE is every bit as good as THE ELECTRIC CHURCH; horror fans will (probably) enjoy the extreme violence, scifi fans will dig the technobabble (that's thankfully kept to a minimum), and there's so much action it's nearly impossible to put this one down for a second. Just be warned that there's more profanity in this series than GOODFELLAS and WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP combined!

THE ETERNAL PRISON, Somers' third in the series, is due in the Spring of 2009.